VLAB had a very interesting line-up on Tuesday in a packed house at Stanford's Business School.

Ron Gonen, the CEO of RecycleBank, might have the most interesting doppelgoogle ever. He also has an interesting business model for recycling, one that allows consumers to acquire frequency points for recycling. The concept hinges on RFID chips that allow operators to match recycling with recycler.

An engaging, dynamic speaker -- who knows how to flatter Californians -- Ron reports 90% penetration in the communities he's launched within. He gets quite a bit of interesting information based on the places the recycler-consumers choose to spend their frequency points. He notes that low-income neighborhoods use their points at the supermarket.

One of his points that I think bears repeating here: he strives to leave some money on the table with respect to charging municipalities so that the municipality can point to the success of the program and build positive community cohesion.

The second presenter was the CEO of Lucid Design. This company creates real-time energy use dashboards for commercial building owners. He made mention of a reality TV show that is a competition for lowering the carbon footprint. The winner? 50% Saved.

The last commercial presenter was the founder of GreenPlug, a company that makes chips and gives firmware to companies: Pip Coburn, are you here? (Pip had a very memorable picture in his book "The Change Function" that rails upon the excessive amount of computer hardware that must be lugged.) The hardware automatically recognizes what the specific device needs, and turns off after it's fully charged. Further, it's created for easy disassembly, minimizing e-waste.

Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less
inevitable, China, India and some of the oil-producing countries are in
a very strong countertrend. So, the current financial crisis is less
likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the
global economy, with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China
and other countries in the developing world.

If nothing else, his very well reasoned arguments along with this conclusion will probably cause a lot of investment capital to (continue to) build overseas and avoid the US.

For those people who are so inclined, I call upon a balanced view of portfolio management -- particularly investment in social and intellectual capital in the United States by driving local investment and scientific advancements -- in order to support the future growth of the US economy.

A great point made at the "Green Technology" VLAB at the MIT/Stanford Tuesday by John Denniston of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers was that the US invests about 1% in transportation R&D, and if you were to look at any firm that invested such a low percentage in R&D, this is a doggish position to take. (I'm paraphrasing; he was more eloquent.)

Worried about education in the US? The idea that our electorate votes on issues based on the emotional appeal because taking the time to become informed -- either directly or by finding trusted sources to give direction -- might cause a missed episode of American Idol?

Well, fear not! We'll be rescued from our own foolishness as the rest of the world weighs in on our plans for governance. This has always happened, of course, but frankly the degree to which the rest of the world gave a vote of No Confidence in Bush's economic proposal is pretty astounding.

So the Fed steps in and makes an unusually large cut in interest rates one week ahead of their planned meeting, but, worldwide, markets are sluggish to respond. The US is naked. We don't want to see just how close we are to a meltdown, we continue to believe our neighbors are struggling due to some sort of inherent personal flaw, and that by making the right choices and working diligently, we'll somehow avoid real hardship.

Given how indebted we are, foreign countries not only depend on our consumer spending but on our ability to service our loans. The entire US is becoming a bad risk. Sell Sell!

Is there an antidote? Heck, yeah! We need to solidify behind a sustainable ethical framework:

Frugality

Disdain for the simply superficial

Production for the purpose of purpose

Support for those who inspire, heal, and keep us empathetic (yes, this is where play comes in!)

It's a new frame. For further ideas on the driving force of the lending market, SocialEdge has a guest this week who has some interesting idea.

I realize that in the United States there's a fantasy of the Lone Ranger, the isolated person outside the law who is somehow better or more pure of a human being than the corrupt people who have to conform to social norms.

But can we get over the idea that social structure actually has value? This is really old news. You know? Really, really, really, really old news. In fact, I'm going to wildly speculate that almost every woman who has ever gone into labor, or anyone who has ever taken care of an elderly relative or an ill person is pretty convinced that being isolated would be a stupid, possibly even self-destructive way to run one's life.

Collaboration? Cooperation? Of course!

To do it well, to minimize the inherent risks, to get over the idea that 9000 superficial relationships "wins" over a few deep ones and understand in a sophisticated way the nature of boundaries and transparency, when bridge capital is helpful vs when it's distracting, the FALSE senses of risk mitigation inherent in hiring from within your network, the issues surrounding building and rebuilding (and rebuilding) interpersonal trust... that's where the edge is.

There is an interesting article out of MIT, about a new tiny, quick sensor.

Note to VC Funds interested in alternative energy because it's such an obvious thing: the field is competitive, there are many paths that are going to dead-end, and it's highly interactive with regulatory forces.

Wanna diversify? You should be investing in filtering and sensing technology. Control of microstructure as well as the creation of new types of advanced materials will make these the must-have consumer products of the (20)10's.

Here's a brilliant video describing how to deal with the "is it real or is it memorex?" questions about Global Warming.

In true Generation X leadership style, the argument -- devoid of idealism, only paying attention to pragmatic concerns -- is as follows: Who cares about what scenario is true or false? Who cares about who is right or wrong?

First, that the scripture cited (and for the record I'm an atheist Jew, but I know a good quote when I see one) was about taking an appropriate level of risk with one's financial wealth... something ABOVE zero. However, I think that the interpretation presumably lends itself to any kind of talent. It's certainly something I've always believed: I am lucky enough to have several talents; they're not for me to use for my own gain at the expense of others. That would be an inappropriate use of power.

Another thing to note is that while the news item reported exceptionally large profits, the church did fine -- not exceptionally well -- so one can assume that there were many people who lost money on their project. (What did they gain? In the right environment, they've gained skills, knowledge, relationships... in the wrong environment, they've gained self-doubt, risk-aversion.)

Third, this news article noted a gain, overall, in community cohesiveness. A recent article in New Scientists describes the Survival of the Selfless, which is to say that an altruistic group can be more competitively fit than a group of individuals with no altruistic traits.

This is a very interesting approach to microfinance in the United States. Please let me know if you have heard of similar examples: using microfinance explicitly to build social infrastructure.

Evidently, there has been a large advance in solar energy: the creation of nanoscale antennas that are about 80% efficient.

This is interesting on many levels; the most obvious of couse is "Woot! Solar Energy!" But I'll add that the News Release does a good job of laying out how research is done: first they've solved one of the problems, but other problems arose, namely interactions among the nano-antennas. Also, they don't really have a solution for storing the energy once they've converted it. But they have ideas for how they're going to solve those problems.

It's a news release that manages to give a good view of what experimental science is about.

For those who don't know, I use Strauss and Howe's mapping of inflection points in trends to determine the end of the Baby Boomer generation; this puts people born in 1961 or after into the generation that follows. (As with anything else, though, part of culture is self-identification.)

The reason why Obama seems so fresh is that he is. He grew up, made choices and took risks in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous era, where there hasn't been a dominant culture that hands out roadmaps to buy into. Even the technological infrastructure of our lives-- energy, the environment, communication -- has been in such profound flux it's a profound challenge these days to think long term and act rapidly.

You can only do that if you have very firm principles AND avoid having judgmental attitudes about how things must be accomplished.

Salon News writes about Obama's message and decries it as elusive. He is a man of the times: a fine example of a non-Boomer leader.

On the other hand, when I returned my goods to Amazon -- which of course I must prioiritize highly to do because I bought them in early December for Christmas and they only have a 30-day return policy I was told that I have to pay for return shipping since my desire to return wasn't their fault (they were duplicates). Weak.

Wonder if people thought of the idea that 30-day return would mean Dec 23 when they were shopping on Black Friday?